FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[Exotica]

By "sit out" do you mean sit out in the feeder or in the FF bucket? Not sure what you mean by that. That smell is just a deepening of the ferment and it didn't "go bad", just fermented more deeply than you are used to experiencing. Sort of smells like vomit...after someone has been drinking all night. Still good to feed out...mine smells like that most of the summer.

If you left it sit out in the feeder for a week, then it may have grown mold and that's not the best of situations but still probably didn't kill your chick....as evidenced by the rest of them being hale and hardy. Chicks die sometimes and if it had happened to more than one you might suspect a management problem or even a genetic source problem, but since it's just one, I'd day it was a bird problem. Just that one.

It was in their feed bowl for perhaps four days but the heat lamp was drying it up, so by then it became a crumble and I did not see any mold.
Sorry that it was unclear! What I meant was that I had it in it's fermented container outside for about 2 weeks and since they were eating very little each day,
I was not replenishing it so it was sitting stagnant without that much water. Just to be safe, I threw it out and started all over. Safe to say everyone is doing fine! I believe it was something completely unrelated now and have no idea what it was but nobody else is experiencing any symptoms so perhaps that chick was weak to begin with! Thank you for your advice as always, Bee. I am truly grateful you take time to help us all out! Also, if you don't mind reading below, I addressed some of your questions too! vvv

Could the chick have eaten dry after/before the fermented and the dry feed expanded in the croup and burst it? Or caused vomiting and aspirating? It is common to feed dry and have water available and not have that happen so maybe that's a completely silly concept. But if it only happened to the one, I wouldn't assume it was a problem with your feed. I've had the same ferment going for months in a two bucket system. I just feed out down to the last quarter bucket and add more water and feed and set aside for a couple days while I feed out of the second bucket. Sorry for your loss!

I have no idea what it was! Now that I think about it, when I checked its crop after it died - it was completely empty. I did see it pecking int he dry starter bowl that morning though so I'm at a lost!

As mentioned to Bee, just in case, I threw out the FF and started over. So far everyone is doing great! I also have a bucket that I backslop with for my big girls and it's been there for three months. I was just worried because with the big girls, since they are primarily fed only FF, it depletes and I add new grains every few days or so. Since the chicks are tiny and I give them both, their container of FF wasn't getting replenished and the same feed was sitting in the container for 2 weeks. No new feed was put in and I kept water to a minimum. Usually, I'm okay with how FF smells and have been doing this for a few months now so I am very familiar. In fact, my big girls have animal protein in their feed so theirs smells really bad but I'm completely used to it and don't mind it at all. Since their starter has no animal protein, I know the semi-sweet but sour smell it's supposed to have. The night before the chick died, I smelled it and it smelled really off. It smelled worse than my animal protein feed. A smell I've never came across in my 2-3 months of fermenting feed. I was really iffy about it and was going to toss it.. but something in me questioned it so I decided to just try a night. I'm kicking myself for it because I even said to myself "if one dies, maybe something was up with the smell.." I'm not blaming the FF on its death since everyone else is so vivacious but it was the youngest and always weak.

 

[TNBielefelder]

Question??? I recently started a batch of fermented feed. I used a 3 gal bucket from TSC put in my feed and some scratch grains filled it with water until the water level was about an inch above the feed put in some Braggs ACV with mother and put the lid on top but didn't "seal" it just let it set on top. I let it ferment for 3 days stirring and keeping it covered. It finally started giving a pleasant sour smell but never bubbled. I went ahead and fed it to the chickens on day 3 and they loved it. I just read some more posts and saw one that stated not to use regular tap water and that is what I used water straight out of the garden hose. So here are my two questions. Is the tap water the reason it never began to bubble? Also I used the left over liquid from the first batch to start a second batch so should I let it continue to ferment or just start completely over? If I start over is it ok to give the chickens the batch I have going now? Thanks

 

[knjinnm]

It may be that whoever wrote the post you are referring to wanted to use non-chlorinated well water for FF mix. If your water source is city water it is most likely chlorinated water so it makes no difference if it is tap water or hose bib water. If you are concerned about chlorine your local pet store carries a product to de-chlorinate tap water.

 

[stevethack]

If you want your water to be "fairly" chlorine free...boil it on the stove for 5 minutes and let it cool. Since all of my chickens drink the same "county water" as I do and I've fermented feed...sprouted scratch grains and even made my own wine with it...I'm not all that picky about the chlorine content. It ferments or sprouts just fine with the allowable chlorine content in it most city water utilities are even allowed to use in it.
Of course there are some who insist their chickens are better then that....but even their fancy chickens will still stand in their water holding equipment and poop in it at the same time they are drinking.

 

[crawford-3546]

I read an article that stated the problem with "city water" is the bacteria killing additives that it has. And of course that's what we are wanting in FF.
I'm no expert though, that's just what I read.

 

[stevethack]

The city water doesn't wipe out the internal flora and fauna inside people... almost doesn't keep the distribution system clean up to your tap either...it's the bare minimum (Fed/state govt rules) to get the job done of chlorine in one form or another. It will sit on a counter in a glass and in just a few hours have measurable more bacteria and yeasts in it. It won't even check up the growth of a fermented feed starting. You can use distilled water if you feel you need to.. I don't...and won't.

 

[glib]

city water is about 1ppm chlorine. Here the chlorine is half elemental chlorine and half chloramine. the former dissipates in a day, the latter is stable but reacts with a number of organic compounds. I am fairly positive that city water is a long term stressor of gut flora, but for perspective, coffee tea and alcohol are worse. one other nice thing about ACV in water is, it degrades chloramine.

 

[Exotica]

For chlorine free water, I just take a huge bucket, fill it up and leave it under direct sunlight for the whole day.
It's been working absolutely great! When I was a novice, I would use tap water and wonder why it took so long to ferment.
It would ferment, but took at least a week to a week and a half. Without chlorine in the water, it'd only take a few days tops!
Since I am back-slopping, I always have a bucket under the sun in case my FF gets too dry after I add more feed.

I live in Los Angeles and never even knew there was chlorine in our water until I had chickens!
I guess I should've done research on it to be more health conscious

 

[bbhorsefly]

I use our city water and its crap. Scores 4/10 and doesn't smell or taste good. But I didn't have trouble with my feed fermenting with it. Maybe it was countered by the heat? I just run a two bucket system. I mix enough for two days with an allowance for back slop. I use rain water when I can, but when that ran out I just used tap water. Now that the weather is cooling here, I've noticed the ferment taking a bit longer, but I've also got a good supply of rain water to last me awhile. Distill if you like! Can't hurt, but I haven't found it necessary.

 

[Tikkijane]

For chlorine free water, I just take a huge bucket, fill it up and leave it under direct sunlight for the whole day.
It's been working absolutely great! When I was a novice, I would use tap water and wonder why it took so long to ferment.
It would ferment, but took at least a week to a week and a half. Without chlorine in the water, it'd only take a few days tops!
Since I am back-slopping, I always have a bucket under the sun in case my FF gets too dry after I add more feed.

I live in Los Angeles and never even knew there was chlorine in our water until I had chickens!
I guess I should've done research on it to be more health conscious 

Right. The chlorine will gas off. Chloramine is more of an issue.

Most of us backslop to get the next batch going. It's the way to go, imo.